Hey everyone I hope your new year is off to a good start. Starting this thread because I didn’t want to resurrect a zombie thread.
So anyway iv’e recently moved and the water authority at my new town/city provides horrendous water. My tap water has a TDS reading of 1010 PPM. I’ve installed a whole house water filtration system and also a tankless RO system. I just wanted to share the brand of tankless RO system that I have installed for anyone who may be interested in getting an RO system. After a bit of research it seems that most RO systems require a holding tank which would need a place to be kept. The system I got is an under sink installation requiring no tank and has the ability to provide 600 gal per day. This system has dropped my TDS from over 1000PPM down to 75PPM and so far has been working flawlessly. Here is a link for info if this link violates any forum rules I apologize and feel free to remove it. These are also available on Amazon for $350. Easy to install. They also make one without remineralization.
That look handy! How long are you getting out of filters before they need changed? $170 seems like it could add up quickly if they need replaced frequently.
I don’t know yet. I just installed it the week before Christmas so we’ve only been using it for a few weeks now. The cost of filters is not really an issue to me I’d rather have drinkable water, also I can’t use the tap water for feeding my plants once I get set up again. At over 1000PPM I wouldn’t be able to add any nutrients because I don’t really know what is causing the high TDS readings. A proper test costs around $800 and I’d need to drive the sample an hour from where we live. We’re 2 miles west of the TX, El Paso border in Sunland Park/Santa Teresa NM. It’s the Wild West as far as politics goes here the mayor of Sunland Park who oversees Santa Teresa is the head chair person on the board of the local water authority, seems to be a bit of a conflict of interest. I will repost when I need to change filters. Here’s a pic of the unit installed under my sink.
I get that. My water is drinkable but somewhat heavy in iron and lime, so coupled with our water softener we just prefer not to drink it. I use untreated water for my plants without issue and we buy drinking water.
I estimate between the cooler and bottled water we pay $40-$50 monthly. If the filters only needed to be changed 1-2 times per year would be significant savings for me. But if they needed to be changed every month or two would be significant increase. That’s why i why I was asking anyway. We have ro system at work for the refrigerator, kitchen sink,
and an ice maker that costs $1500 year to maintain and my water at home isnt that big of an inconvenience.
I’m hoping for every 6 months at most. It’s just me and my wife in the house so hoping to get a decent lifespan from the filter. I have a whole house filter in front of the RO unit that covers just about everything that is supposedly good for 100,000 gallons. That one also requires a set of $190 filters. If you have a lot of contaminants in your water it might be too much for the membrane filter in the RO unit. I waited to see what the whole house unit would do before getting the RO unit.
When you say you’re using untreated water for your plants what is the PPM? And are you adding nutrients to high PPM tap water? If so how do you determine what the final PPM should be? Asking because if I can just use the straight filtered water then that would extend the life of the RO filter. This is the whole house filter. The first filter on the right was bright white when it was installed 2-1/2 months ago.
I should have said unsoftened water as its the only treatment process we have. My well water is typically 500-600ppm. It’s not ideal but it’s not unmanageable either.
When you do swap them out , make sure to kill the breaker for the plugs just below your filters.
Def don’t want any accidents. 
So when mixing nutrients do you just calculate starting at your tap PPM?
As I’ve researched TDS in tap water it seems that you can have clean water that is high in TDS. The only issue may be kidney stones if you use it for drinking.
Thanks for the heads up. I can just unplug the unit I have a two gang box under the sink.
I mixed with ro from work on distilled to see where it’s at. After that i pretty much mix the same so I don’t even bother checking it most of the time.